BRILLIANT SHANG ATTEMPTS TO RETURN.

Shannon News, 20 February 1925, Page 4

BRILLIANT SHANG ATTEMPTS TO RETURN.

(BY VINCENT WRAY.) All Rights - Reserved. Every lover of our own land will hail with delight the fact that the new Home Secretary has declared his intention of tightening up the regulations ■ concerning the admission of aliens into this country. The need for such action is emphasised by the fact that no less than forty French, women undesirable as residents, have contracted marriages with convicts of British birth in order that they may take up the status of English citizens. Some strong remarks on the subject were passed at the Old .Bailey when • a man was convicted of bigamy. It was shown that he had “married a woman whom he had not long known in order that she could become a British subject. Almost simultaneously, there were two cases at the Clerkenwell Police Court. But here there was no bigamy. The girls in the dock were of doubtful character, could hardly speak English, -but had acquired our nationality through marriage. It is astonishing how many are the devices by which it is sought to override the regulations affecting the immigration Of foreigners. There was a time, before the war. when men and women could come to these shores without let or hindrance. Whilst I was in the United States a police official said to me, “Whenever we want to keep a man out we do it —but you, well, every man who is of disrepute and who wants to have a fresh jumping ground for his crimes finds it easy to sail for England, where no questions are asked.’’ I had a personal experience in this direction. On my way home, I watched a man “rook” his fellow passengers at cards. Afterwards, he had the audacity to tell me that he was an expert at the game, and that America had got "too hot for him" and that he intended exploiting England. He landed' at Plymouth without trouble, and, assured me that he defied everybody to keep him out. It would not be so easy to carry on in the same fashion nowadays. We have learned something of a lesson in these days. But even now the restrictions are not sufficiently severe, nor are those which exist carried out as they should be. I had occasion not long ago to sit for a while in the Thames Police Court, and hear two men sentenced who had come ashore, though they had been previously deported. The manner in which they came seemed simple enough. Both were Germans and they had been sent off after a series of despicable crimes. But, like most of their kind, they had a pleasant remembrance of England, which they candidly declared was better than the Fatherland. They determined to return, and so they did—as able-bodied seamen. But for the vigilance of a detective who is a personal friend of my own, they might have yet been at large. Happening one afternoon to be sauntering along Limehouse, he saw them and their features appeared to be familiar. challenged them, and they acknowledged their identity. There was no other course for them to adopt, since their finger-prints were amongst the records at the Yard, and there was other evidence that would have convicted them. Ex-Detective-Inspector Scholes,. who lias retired from the Service after 31 years at the Yard, told me that ninety per cent, of the criminals in England to-day are men of alien race. Particularly is this the case with the men who are found running dens of infamy. There would be comparatively little crime, he declared, if we could only keep the undesirable foreigner out of the country. I know one strange case in which an audacious rascal who had been deported managed to return to London. He was a linguist and a person who could assume disguises that would have baffled the skill even of the renowned Sherlock Holmes. He was sentenced to a term of penal servitude, and was also recommended for deportation. He was by profession a thief, and was probably the most expert burglar in the world. I-Ic was duly sent away, and it. was hoped that this country would know him. no more. But surely enough, lie returned, and his manner of entrance was by taking the name of a well-known Paris detective, arming himself with official documents, and then bluffing his way through the officials at Dover. No sooner had he arrived than he was at work, and there was some thing about the “job” he undertook that put the police on his track. Nor were the police surprised when they discovered the identity of the criminal.

Not long since a woman appeared at Bow Street. She had committed a bare-laced robbery 'from a man with whom she had been associating. It was announced that she had been previously reported and that she had been for a term in Holloway Prison. How she had returned to this country was never explained. The magistrate again sentenced her; a'nd added that she would be recommended to the attention of the Home Secretary for deportation, when, with a taunting grin, she replied, “But you cannot se'nd me away any more. I am an Englishwoman.” To the amazement of every official in the court, she produced a document which showed that she had been legally married to an Englishman. Consequently,, there was no possibility of deporting her. f learned afterwards that she had paid a person of no repute £5 to mane her his wife. He had agreed to this on the understanding that they were to part at the door of the registry office.

I was at Marlborough Street Police Station the other day when out of twenty persons who were “put up" iti the dock, there were only five who bore English names or wero of English origin. The others were charged with offences that would bring (he blush of shame to the cheeks of any self-respecting law-abiding citizen.

I hear that Brilll&tot Chang, the wily

Oriental who supplied cocaine to dope fiends in the West End, and who was sent to a term of imprisonment and was ordered to be returned to his native China, has made an attempt to come back. The detective who gave me the story had a. great deal to do with the conduct of the case. “Chang” said my informant, “after he had done his time was placed on board a steamer bound for the Far East. He managed somehow to escape at Port Said and then, having money in his possession, because he was never a poor man, he obtained a passage to England.

“He relied upon the fact that one Chinaman is very like another, and he might have brought his coup off. but for the fact that I had had a great deal to do - with him. I should have known him anywhere. Happening to board a steamer at Tilbury I caught sight of him, and he must have seen me also, because he never attempted to land, and I took goo a care that he went back,, at any rate, for some distance.”

There is only one difficulty in the matter of deportation, and that is where Russians are concerned.- Several Russians who were regarded as undesirable have been sent to their own shores, and have been refused admission with the result that they have been brought back. What to do in these cases is still a problem, and one skipper suggested that they should be carried to within a three miles limit of the shore, and then put into a boat a'nd left to look after themselves. I am, however, as I have indicated,, exceedingly pleased to know that a special effort is now to be made to exclude undesirables and that the existing regulations are to be strengthened.